It’s now been confirmed through official channels that the Hyundai Ioniq 5N will be coming to Gran Turismo 7 in the January 2025 update, along with playing a starring role in this weekend’s Gran Turismo World Finals in Amsterdam.
The confirmation follows the car appearing to be leaked in a rather odd fashion before the weekend, appearing on-and-off through in-game messages regarding the Viewers Gift Campaign for the World Finals. Whereas the main news article showed a teaser image for what the gift for watching the Nations Cup would be, the thumbnails in GT7 itself showed the Ioniq 5N.
Hyundai had previously made reference to an unspecified collaboration with Gran Turismo, and while we didn’t entirely know what to expect on that front it did seem likely that some car content would emerge from it.
The Ioniq 5N would have been the likeliest candidate too, as the marque chose to illustrate the announcement with a pair of roadgoing 5Ns and the modified 5N TA in connection with an attempt at Pikes Peak over the summer.
It’s a car that’s been well-received by the motoring press, garnering praise for being the first electric car to truly challenge the notion that they’re not much fun to drive. That’s helped by a rearward bias on its dual-motor set up, with 641hp heading to the four wheels, and a “simulated automatic gearbox” that allows you to mimic traditional gear changes.
We’ll see that put to the test at the GT World Series World Finals in Amsterdam this coming weekend, as the Ioniq 5N will be used in the Nations Cup on Sunday December 8. The 12 qualified finalists will use the car at an unspecified track in the initial hot-lap qualifying session that sets the grid for the first, multi-marque race.
Speaking of the car’s debut in Gran Turismo, series producer Kazunori Yamauchi paid tribute to Hyundai N’s motorsport achievements this year in taking victory at Pikes Peak, the TCR World Tour (for driver Norbert Michelisz), a TCR class victory at the Nurburgring 24 Hours, and the WRC drivers’ title for Thierry Neuville.
Players will be able to get hold of the Ioniq 5N in GT7 for free by watching any part of the Nations Cup through the in-game portal before 0900 UTC on Monday December 16. It’ll be delivered later on, as it’s only added to the game in the January update — with a date yet to be confirmed.
See more articles on Gran Turismo 7 Game Update, Gran Turismo World Series, and Hyundai.
